Marketaxess considers post-reform future (Financial Times)

The talk of the SEF world yesterday was the rumor that someone was out to buy MarketAxess. Coincidentally I was at an analyst event hosted by MarketAxess last night, but no one was talking. Although swaps are my favorite thing to talk sbout these days, the reality here is that MarketAxess would be a bond play, not a direct swaps play. So if youre guessing who the buyer is, i suggest thinking about who needs corporate bond liquidity.

Regardless of how this one plays out, this is a good reminder that SEF consolidation is a given despite the fact SEFs don’t technically exist yet. pulling a few liquidity pools together into one, even across product types, could yield some pretty interesting opportunities.

“There is not yet enough liquidity or demand to support so many venues,” said Kevin McPartland, senior analyst at Tabb Group. “In these situations where there’s a boom based on an industry-changing event, it may be that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”Read the full story at FT.com